Page 183 - A Selection Of European Art
P. 183
The visitor of the Treasures of Our Art Museums 5, A Selection
of European Art, which displays the national museums’
collections of the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century European
art, can find what links these art acquisitions with the culture
that produced them. Unquestionably, culture is connected with
human production, and more particularly, with the pictures
that themselves are cultural products. Thus, pictures have an
influential cultural function and power; they are considered
visual texts directed to the audience to convey an idea or a
meaning. Likely, the meaning of paintings is indirect, because,
in addition to the direct meaning of pictures, there are historical,
symbolic, and emotional dimensions, as well as metaphors and
similes, as a metaphorical language of art.
Therefore, the importance of paintings has arisen in culture,
especially after the availability of modern media that facilitated
to reproduce and deliver them to the largest number of
audience. Although humans in ancient times used pictures to
express the invisible or the unseen, artists in the modern age
have benefited from the developments of visual techniques
and new ways of expression. Thus, cultural heritage forms the
actual and tangible structure of human identity.
As for the art masterpieces collected by people of high taste
and prestige, they have become today a national heritage.
Throughout all the historical periods, works of art have
reflected not only the culture of those who created them but
also the culture and identity of those who acquired them and
their way of communication with the past. Likely, the reason
behind collecting the masterworks was the delivery of a
message reflecting the taste of those who acquired them, and
at the same time, strengthening the bonds between him and his
community. As each “work of art” expresses the thoughts and
feelings of the artist, it also reflects the personality of the one
who acquired it. And possibly, it inspired different ideas and
many feelings in him, which aroused the interest in the cultural
and artistic wealth that our museums housed, in terms of
developing plans and methods to preserve them, and providing
places equipped with the modern systems for displaying them,
as well as documenting, classifying, maintaining, and restoring
the artworks.
181383
of European Art, which displays the national museums’
collections of the eighteenth-and nineteenth-century European
art, can find what links these art acquisitions with the culture
that produced them. Unquestionably, culture is connected with
human production, and more particularly, with the pictures
that themselves are cultural products. Thus, pictures have an
influential cultural function and power; they are considered
visual texts directed to the audience to convey an idea or a
meaning. Likely, the meaning of paintings is indirect, because,
in addition to the direct meaning of pictures, there are historical,
symbolic, and emotional dimensions, as well as metaphors and
similes, as a metaphorical language of art.
Therefore, the importance of paintings has arisen in culture,
especially after the availability of modern media that facilitated
to reproduce and deliver them to the largest number of
audience. Although humans in ancient times used pictures to
express the invisible or the unseen, artists in the modern age
have benefited from the developments of visual techniques
and new ways of expression. Thus, cultural heritage forms the
actual and tangible structure of human identity.
As for the art masterpieces collected by people of high taste
and prestige, they have become today a national heritage.
Throughout all the historical periods, works of art have
reflected not only the culture of those who created them but
also the culture and identity of those who acquired them and
their way of communication with the past. Likely, the reason
behind collecting the masterworks was the delivery of a
message reflecting the taste of those who acquired them, and
at the same time, strengthening the bonds between him and his
community. As each “work of art” expresses the thoughts and
feelings of the artist, it also reflects the personality of the one
who acquired it. And possibly, it inspired different ideas and
many feelings in him, which aroused the interest in the cultural
and artistic wealth that our museums housed, in terms of
developing plans and methods to preserve them, and providing
places equipped with the modern systems for displaying them,
as well as documenting, classifying, maintaining, and restoring
the artworks.
181383
